Hello Moto! Motorola stepped up their smartphone game today.

Today was a rejoice for the tech-geeks like us! First One Plus Two was launched in a kickass VR presentation on the Cardboard. Followed by the aforesaid was the Moto event in which Motorola proved that they are no slouch when it comes to no compromise smartphones for affordable prices in every bracket. We witnessed all of Motorola’s upcoming phones for the year, including not one but two refreshed versions of their premium Moto X line. Let us deep dive for more detail.

So, this year Motorola focused on 5 key principles mantra to make their phones have a better mobile relationship with consumer. Here they are:

This assured as that Moto will continue to make bloat-free phones(#1) with great camera(#2) and superb battery life(#4, with fast charging) at affordable price(#5) with plethora of customization(#3, hint: Moto Maker). Too much to deduce, eh Sherlock?

With this announcement, they followed up with three Motorola phones.” You Hear that? Three phones, each for Flagship, Mid-high end and Mid end categories. Starting with the first one..

Moto X Style – The “Allegedly” Flagship

The gorgeous flagship

The successor for yesteryear’s Moto X, Moto X Style promises to deliver an elegant design with the claim of “ the best camera smartphone[Motorola] has ever built”. All of it while delivering a pure Lollipop (Android 5.1.1) experience at an exceptional price. Moto X Style also comes with a new Turbo Charging method that Motorola claims to be a lot faster than the Samsung Galaxy S6’s Adaptive Fast Charging technology! Talk about boat loads of claims!

It comes with a rather large, 5.7-inch QHD(1440x2560px) panel so yes, the Motorola Moto X Style isn’t exactly puny but guess what? it isn’t huge either. As a matter of fact, it claims to have one of the highest screen-to-size ratios in the industry. Yes, 76% of its front is occupied by the screen. Well you must have noticed the word “Allegedly” in the heading, why so? Hmm, so Moto X Style is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with 3 Gigs of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. Addition of Micro SD card slot is a welcoming change from this Moto X’s predecessor.

Honestly, I feel SD 808 is more of a fail-safe SoC released by Qualcomm after their massive failure to contain hotheaded Elder sibling Snapdragon 810. It’s a controversial discussion if this SD 808 with Hexa-core is any better than last year’s SD 805 (certainly not in terms of GPU) 😛 But that’s for you to decide.

Specs!

Ah, it’s time to verify Moto’s claim for camera. You’ll find a 21MP camera with F2.0, phase-detection autofocus, and dual-tone LED flash on the back of this gorgeous device. Well, honestly speaking, the sample images shown off during the phone’s introduction did look impressive. However the lack of OIS (Optical image stabilization) is a downer. For your video needs, the Moto X Style captures standard and HDR footage at up to 4K resolution, as well as slow-motion videos (720p – 120fps). On the front, we see a 5MP front-facing camera backed up by *wait for it* an LED flash. Goodbye dark selfies! Also, the wide-angle lens let more of your buddies fit in the frame, while the f2.0 aperture and 1.4um pixels promise satisfactory low light performance.

Make your own Moto via Moto Maker!

Moto X Style will come with plethora of design options via Moto Maker where you can customize the colors of the device and pick up a back cover of smooth wood, Horween leather, and many more materials.

The Pure Edition is said to be sold for $399 unlocked and will be available in September, now take that OnePlus Two! If this is not a steal, I don’t know what else will be.

Moto X Play – King of Mid-high estate!

Yes! One more Moto X?!

Moto X Mid-ranger variant!

Somehow, I feel Motorola wanted to bridge the gaptrench between yesteryear’s ₹32k priced Moto X and ₹12k priced Moto G, resulting in a more of a Midranger champ – Moto X Play. Don’t be disappointed! This phone ain’t a slouch either!

This beast comes with a humongous 3,630 mAh juice pack and Motorola promises up to 48 hours of “mixed usage”, and turbo charging with a claim to give you 8 hours of “usage” in just a 10 minute charge to make sure you are always brimming with those electrons. There are no compromises in shooting department either. Moto X Play carries the same main snapper of 21 MP resolution with F2.0 aperture and a dual-tone LED flash, while the frontal cam has a 5 MP sensor sans flash.

The only compromises you will have to deal with is a lower spec’d display, memory and processor. X Play is powered by Snapdragon 615, a mid-ranger 64 bit Octa-core SoC which I have found to be enough of day to day multitasking usage. You get 2 gigs of RAM with option of 16/32 GB of internal storage. Micro SD card slot is present for your never ending data storage needs. The 5.5″ Full HD (1920x1080px) panel can be found on the front.

Moto Maker would be available for this device too, to allow you to personalize your device to the bare bones of the handset. As per the pricing, the only hint Moto gave is that The Moto X Play will be available in August for “half the price” of flagship phones from competitors.

So my estimate would be ~$299 for the base 16 gigs version.

Moto G – Poor man’s Flagship!

Motorola Moto G 2015

Oh come on! Don’t be annoyed by the word Poor. Moto G is the budget smartphone series for the user who want the experience to be premium while keeping their pockets heavy. 😛 Moto G (1st gen) became very popular as it offered the best specifications for it’s time on the ₹11,999 price point.

Moto G (3rd Gen) for the year promises to provide a RICH user experience while keeping the costs to minimum. Well, the Moto G (2015) still packs the same crisp 5” display with a 720 x 1280 resolution, giving it a 294 PPI density. The SoC under the hood this time is a quad-core Snapdragon 410 – Qualcomm’s entry-level 64-bit solution.

So, what’s interesting? Well, the Moto G (2015) is the first of its line to come in two variants! Basic one will have 8 GB of internal storage and 1 GB of RAM, while the other one will boast of 16 GB of storage and 2 gigs of RAM – quite generous for a device of its class, but much needed for future-proofing. Both variants’ storage can be expanded via microSD card slot.

Specs!

Well, on the camera front, Moto G packs a 13 MP sensor with dual-tone LED flash same as the one found in Nexus 6 with some minor software improvements. Isn’t that like AWESOME?! On the front we have a 5 MP shooter to take care of your selfie needs. This phone also comes with IPX7 certifications for water resistance, meaning it can take a quite splash and carry on just fine. The phone will also be customizable through Moto Maker unlike previous models, while still retaining the swappable backs and flip covers that many loved so much.

The Moto G (2015) is available to buy today, July 28th, and set you back around $180 for the 8 GB / 1 GB RAM model and about $220 for the 16 GB / 2 GB RAM variant. Buy it here for Indian users.

So summing up! This year’s Moto event was a blast. Moto X Style and Play are superb devices which are priced just right! We even saw a great hardware bump for it’s Entry level Moto G device. With these launched, Motorola have cleared that they just don’t compromise when it comes to make great smartphones.

Let us know your views about the new Moto family in the comments below!